Rhiya stiffened at the unexpected hug from Raja then patted him on the back awkwardly. It was hard not to (unwillingly) kind of like the kid when he was this genuinely enthusiastic and excited. She hated it. This was not the time to be making friends. “Go on, try the spell,” she said gruffly, folding her arms as he stepped away.

And disaster strikes in three, two, one….

Raja tried the spell and Rhiya raised her eyes in surprise as a thin gold rope emerged from his wand. She was less surprised by the purple flames that followed though she hadn’t expected them to be quite so large. She stumbled back, right onto a patch of lava, and watched in dismay as the disc in her hand glowed bright red. Dammit! She picked herself up slowly, continuing to berate herself as Raja jumped up in excitement.

Ushered forward by the Aquila, she saw that he had in fact managed to move the obstacle forward a little bit. That doesn’t really help us. But neither does falling into the lava. So you may as well say something nice to the kid. Rhiya turned around to congratulate Raja and finally noticed the state of his eyebrows. She opened her mouth and closed it once more. The first-year didn’t seem to have any idea what had happened.

“Uh, yeah…nice…work. You moved it a few inches. Great.” Rhiya wasn’t very good at giving compliments. But that was because most of the time people didn’t deserve them. Hopefully Raja wouldn’t notice. Looking at the floor guiltily, she said, “I, uh, I fell into the lava when you cast the spell. We’re going to have to go back. I’m really sorry….” She looked at the disc in her hands, at the distant goal posts, at the sky, anywhere but Raja’s face. Then she turned around abruptly and headed back to the box with the discs. She could see Professor McKindy hanging around near the start of the course and debated whether or not to take Raja to him.

Nah.

He seemed fine. He clearly wasn’t in any physical pain. Plus, he’d known the risks when he tried the spell. It didn’t really matter if he found out he’d lost his eyebrows now or at the end of class. The eyebrows were gone, either way. Rhiya picked up a new disc and quickly hopped back to the same patch of green they’d been stuck at before.

Excellent. You’ve managed to get back to square one. Rhiya sighed in frustration. They needed to move on but if she just did the spell she’d feel even guiltier about everything. She turned to Raja: “Why don’t you give this another shot. I think you should try Wingardium Leviosa this time, but you can do whatever.” At this point, it didn’t really matter if he tried Carpe Retractem again. She’d give him one more shot, and if he failed to get them past, she was taking over.

It seemed like she was going to say no, and Raja felt his disappointment mounting, but to his surprise and relief, Rhiya said he could try it. “Thanks!” he said, giving her a quick squeeze. He didn’t ... more

“Oh no, you fell?” Raja was far less concerned about the red-turned disc and more about the fact that she’d fallen over. “No worries about having to double back. You okay?” Rhiya didn’t seem hurt,... more

Rhiya waited semi-patiently as Raja pulled off a successful Wingardium Leviosa . “Nice job.” They only had to do this, what, another 30-40 times? She looked ahead eyebrows in dismay at how far they... more